BishopAccountability.org
	Dine High Court Hears Clergy Sex Abuse Case Gallup Independent July 1, 2011 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2011/09/#055282 Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M. on July 1, 2011 Dine high court hears clergy sex abuse case By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola Independent correspondent SHIPROCK — The fate of the first clergy sex abuse lawsuit filed in the Navajo tribal court system is in the hands of Navajo Nation Supreme Court justices. On Monday, the court convened in the Shiprock Chapter House to hear oral arguments in the case of John Doe BF v. Diocese of Gallup, et al., a lawsuit involving allegations of sexual abuse against Charles “Chuck” Cichanowicz, a former Franciscan priest who worked in the Diocese of Gallup. A small audience of about 20 people, mostly curious reservation attorneys and tribal court advocates, were in attendance, including Shiprock District Judge Genevieve Woody who dismissed the case in January 2010. “I think we have enough lawyers here,” Chief Justice Herb Yazzie wryly noted as he surveyed the audience. Yazzie said the hearing was held in the chapter house because the Navajo Nation Supreme Court is currently without a facility. However, the temporary location provided an added layer of drama because Shiprock’s Christ the King Catholic Church, where the case’s sexual abuse allegedly took place, sits directly across the street from the chapter house. Like a silent witness, the church could be seen through the chapter house windows by the hearing’s participants. Inside the hearing, two Navajo men sat quietly as living witnesses. The first man, the alleged victim in the case, identified in court documents only as John Doe BF, sat between his attorneys, Patrick Noaker, of St. Paul, Minn., and William R. Keeler, of Gallup. A second man, who has also alleged abuse by Cichanowicz and has a civil case pending in Window Rock District Court, watched the proceedings quietly from a seat in the audience. Noaker and Keeler initially filed the lawsuit in November 2007 on behalf of the first Navajo plaintiff, who resides in Oregon. Woody had ruled the Navajo courts have jurisdiction but also ruled the plaintiff did not file his lawsuit within the required two-year statute of limitations period. Noaker and Keeler subsequently filed an appeal with the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. Accompanied by Associate Justices Eleanor Shirley and William J.J. Platero, Yazzie instructed the attorneys they had 15 minutes to present their arguments with the justices free to interrupt with questions. Albuquerque attorney Brian K. Nichols represented Cichanowicz, Gallup attorney Lynn Isaacson represented the Diocese of Gallup, and Albuquerque attorney David W. Peterson represented the two Franciscan Provinces of St. John the Baptist and Our Lady of Guadalupe. “We have an interesting question on the jurisdiction before us,” Yazzie said as he advised the attorneys to specifically address that issue. Throughout the hearing, Yazzie and Shirley quizzed the attorneys about the defendants’ relationship with the Navajo Nation; leases, permits, and registrations possibly obtained by the defendants; concepts of reasonable diligence, repressed insight, and delayed discovery; who supervised Cichanowicz when he worked as a priest on the Navajo Nation; and Navajo treaties and court decisions that might have a bearing on the case. Noaker argued that the statute of limitations requirement had been met because the plaintiff filed the lawsuit in 2007, soon after he recognized how the sexual abuse had injured him during his life. Noaker said Woody acted prematurely when she dismissed the case and argued that she should have allowed the trial process to play out. Nichols, Isaacson and Peterson praised Woody’s order to dismiss, and criticized a number of shortcomings they saw in the plaintiff’s lawsuit and in Noaker and Keeler’s handling of the case, from missed deadlines, the submission of a “bare-bones affidavit,” to a lack of expert witness disclosure. “It’s been slap shot from the beginning,” Nichols said at one point. Later he characterized Noaker and Keeler’s handling of the case as “slip shod.” Nichols, however, did not agree with Woody that the Navajo Nation has jurisdiction. Yazzie questioned Nichols about that position and questioned the possible consensual relationship Cichanowicz had with the Navajo Nation when he worked here as a priest. “To come here as a missionary to convert the Navajo people voluntarily is not consent?” Yazzie asked. “If the individual or the church does wrong, then even though you are here voluntarily, the Nation and the people don’t have jurisdiction over you?” Yazzie also questioned Isaacson about who supervised Cichanowicz when he worked as a Franciscan priest in the Diocese of Gallup. “The diocese owned the church, but the priest was placed by the Franciscan order,” Isaacson said. “We did not have supervisory control over the priest.” However, Isaacson added, Cichanowicz was placed in the Shiprock parish with the diocese’s consent. Yazzie questioned Noaker as to what triggered the plaintiff’s 2007 insight about the alleged sexual abuse injury, and he questioned why the plaintiff was using a pseudonym in the court records but had asked for a jury trial and had not asked for closed court hearings. Noaker said the plaintiff’s insight about the abuse was triggered through the recovery process for chemical dependency and mental health problems, and the plaintiff was using a pseudonym to protect the privacy of his family on the Navajo Nation. Yazzie concluded with a final question to Nichols about why his client was not present at the court hearing. According to Nichols, Cichanowicz lives in Indiana and financial circumstances were a factor. “The court will note,” Yazzie said as he adjourned the hearing, “that the plaintiff appears to be a resident of Oregon and that’s about as far distance as the defendant.” It is not known when the Navajo Nation Supreme Court will issue its decision. — Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.